The invention relates to a multi-station system and to a method for processing paper postal items.
In many cases, the automated production of postal items involves collation of a number of postal items that are to be included in a mail piece. Such postal items may for instance include documents, each constituted by one or more sheets, business reply envelopes, cards on carriers, brochures etc.
One manner of transporting is in mutual alignment against a transport finger that pushes the stack along a transport track. A disadvantage of this manner of transportation is, that the postal items lie loosely on top of each other, which entails a risk of jams, in particular if the items are to be stacked and/or transported at high speed.
In another manner of transporting postal items, the postal items are retained in a mutually fixed position. When transferring the stacked postal items from one station to a next station, the stations being driven by separate drives, the transport track of each station may be driven at a slightly higher speed than the transport track of the preceding station to avoid buckling of the postal items between the stations. However, in such systems, the sheets within a stack tend to be slightly displaced relative to each other in transport direction.